The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-01-19

| talk against money rs tuouSn ~ uelt ny
value 1t is refinement. it is education, 1T IS
| a thousand blessed surroundings, it is hands,
it is feet it is sails to great enterprises, 1t is
| the table spresd to feed the hunger OF your
chidl en-, it is the fire to keep your family
! warm. it is the building Of CHURCHES, the en-
| downing of colleges, the taking or Bloles across
the sea- under God it is the evangelization OF
nations-money put to right uses. The more
| a man gets the better, if it comes honestly
| and goes usefully. What would this world
! have been without the William E. Dodges,
! and the George PeabodyS and the James
Lenoxes, and men Of that type3 Who sent
$4,000 to earthtuake stricken CharieS1on'
| New York Chamber of Commerce. When
| breadstuffs were to be sent across the sea to
Ireland, starving Ireland, we took mp co!lec-
tions in all our churches, but the great mass
| of the money sent, the most of the bread-
| sturs were sent out by men of means. While
we acknowledge the uses, the Christian uses,
of money and have no sympathy with the
| insineerity or the can't that is always talked
against rich men, as though they were not
| as good members of society as others, as
| though they were to be suspected-tbe COM
! plant chiefly made by men who have not
! been successful against men who have been
succeSsful-while we have no sympathy with
| that thing, tell you plainly a man IS most
| unwise who measures this life ny monetary
| achievements, and he will find out this mis-
| hanGs a. he goes out of the world without q
| dollar of money or certificate of stock. He
| might better have been the Christian porter
that opened his gate, or the Christian work
man who heave1 the coal into his cellar.
"They that trust in their wealth and boast
themselves in the multitude Of their riches,
none of them eau by any means redeem his
brother, nor give to God q ransom for him
that he should not see corruption. The wise
men die, likewise the fool. and the brutish
person perish and leave their wealth to
others"
"Substantial comfort will not grow
In natures barren sell:
All we can boas:-tll Christ we know,
Is vanity and toll"
Now, am glad to say-turning brighter
leaf in my discourse-I am glad to say that
than those of whom have spoken. and they
are measuring their life by moral and spir-
itual development. 1t is not egotism for a
man to say: II am better than I used to
be: my thoughts are purer; live by the in
spiration of higher motives; have by the
grace of God put down great mauy of my
evil habits; am better man now entering
1887 than when I entered 1871" 1t is
no egot:sm for a soldier to say: 81
understand more military tactics than when
first took up musket and learned to pre-
sent arms and when I was the.p of the drill
o:icer" 1t is no egotism for sailor to say:
II know more of voyaging on the sea and
more of ratlines than I did when l first
learned to clew down the mizzen topsail."
1t is no bad thing, no mean thing, no self
righteous thing for Christian man to say:
"fknow more about the battles of the Lord
or I can sail better the voyage of this life
than when first entered Christ's service"
Why there are people here to-day who are
mighty for God who once were very weak In
the Christian life, but they have measured
Iances with many a foe and unhorsed it.
They have grown swarthy hammering at the
anvil of calamity They have come upon
different platform from the one on which
they stood years and years ago They measure
their life on earth by golden gated Sab.
baths and Pentecostal prayer meetings aud
communion seasons and baptismal fonts and
hallelu iahS in the temple. Oh, how changed
is their life. They have stood on Mount
Sinai and heard it thunder. They have stood
on Mount Pisgah and looked over into the
Promised Land. They have written over
their lire's troubles: "Life is but a moment"
They are only waiting for the gates to open
and the shackles TO fall and the glory to
begin.
Then notice there are great many peo-
ple-I wish there were more of them--who
are measuring their life bv the amount OF
good they can do. John Bradford said he
not by pen or tongue accomplish some good.
! cannot tell how much man might &C.
complish if he devoted all his life to right
purposes. cannot tell. I have not
the mathematical capacity, to make
the calculation, of how many
tears he could wipe away; of how many
burdens he could lift; of how much ignor-
ance he could illumine; Of how many outcasts
he could bring back to God. There are men
who have gone their whole life in the right
direction. All their faith all their natural
force. all their mental acumen, all their
physical energy, all their enthusiasm of soul
for God, and they climbed mountains, and
they crossed seas and they trudged
deserts and they dropped into martyr graves
waiting for tEe resurrection of the just. They
measured their lives by the chains they had
broken, by the sorrow they had alleviated,
by the garments with which they clothed
nakedness, by the miles they iourneyed
to relieve suffering of any kind and
of all kinds. That is the way
they measured life. How long have they
lived! "How old art thou'" How old was
Sutter. How old was Richard Baxters How
old was Philip Dodridge? Why, in practical
Add ten thousand times ten thousand more
years and you cannot express the time they
lived. Forever. Forever. Forever. Add
all the immortalities, all the thousands Of
souls they brought to God, add up all the
immortalities. Heaven to Heaven, throne
to thrcne. glory to glory, and make the esti-
mate While that is so, there are persons in
this use who have not yet begun life.
We have got to he babes in Christ before
we begin the Christian life. You say you
are 50, or you are 6O, or you are 70, or you
are so. My brother, if you are not Chris.
tian, you have not begun to live.
do not know what your opportunities
are; do not know what your manners are,
attractive or repqlsive; I do not know what
your education, elaborate or nothing at all;
but know there is field for you to work,
there is soul for you to save, there is an
If you you have eiIoauence, use it
where Paul and Wilberforce used
theirs, on the side of Christ. If you have
learning put It into the poor box Of the
worlds suffering. But if you have neither
wealth, nor eloquence, nor learning, you
have smile with which to encourage the
disheartened, and you have a frown with
which you can blast injustice and you havea
voice with which you can call sinners home
to God. ''Oh," says some one, 'that's
a very sanctimonious view of life. My
brother, it is not; it is the only bright view
of lie. ald it is the only bright view
Of death do not know how a man can
exist in moment like this--one year gone,
the other come. amid all the solemn sug-
gestions that come to every thoughtful man
and woman-I do not know how one can
exist without trying to make some prepara
tion for the great future and trying to
offer some repentance for the past.
You compare the death scene Of those who
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